The Barstool Fund - Little Louie's
Up next: Little Louie's (Northbrook, IL)
Little Louie's has served the Northbrook community for over 53 years. They are a family restaurant where customers of all ages feel at home. Their tasty menu consists of creative wraps, authentic tacos, old-school favorites and, of course, Louie's famous fries.
Reader Email
Over 20 years ago, I bought Little Louie’s – an authentic, old-school hot dog joint in the Chicago suburbs. Louie’s has been an institution in this community since 1967. It’s more than a hot dog joint. It was and is the place the high school kids go for lunch and after games. Its where families catch up with their grandparents on Saturday. We have been serving friends and families affordable meals and sponsoring little league baseball in the village park across the street for over 50 years.
The story of Little Louie’s is one of resilience and evolution. Hot dogs, pizza puffs, and cheese fries do not get it done anymore. I have expanded my menu exponentially, creating healthier wraps and sandwiches with names and branding inspired by my loyal customers and their favorite movie characters like The Scheyer (after local legend and Duke National champ Jon Scheyer), The Shake N Bake, and The Kenny Powers.
As time went on, I pursued cost-effective methods that would also keep me entrenched in the community. We teamed up with all of the local schools and summer camps to distribute lunches on a daily basis, giving me brand new (and what I thought to be consistent) means of distribution. I bought, rehabbed, and created a mobile food truck to cater lunch at corporate parks, summer neighborhood festivals, and casual weddings and bar mitzvahs.
Everyone’s restaurant hit the skids in 2020. For us, it was more than the restaurant being closed for a while. It also meant no school, no camps, no weddings, no outdoor festivals and no office catering. Early on, we treaded water relying on donations from our best customers to serve first responders at hospitals and local fire departments. It was another testament to the work we do in our community, but it only lasted so long.
Sadly, this is not the first time Louie’s has faced adversity. In 2017, I lost my 9-year-old daughter Alexa to a relentless brain tumor that waged war on us for over six years. Just as Louie’s is part of the fabric of our community, Alexa was a fixture in the restaurant, greeting and ringing up customers with her gorgeous smile and radiant blue eyes. In my darkest days, my store manager Jose, his family, and the rest of my staff rallied around me and the store. They committed to Louie’s as if it were their own, and for that reason, I have not wavered to keep them on payroll, even as that becomes nearly impossible. They weren’t going to let Louie’s fail, and now I am doing everything in my power to avoid failing them.
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My story isn’t unique. Many of us have tragedies beyond the pandemic’s impact on our business. As you can imagine, though, since Alexa’s diagnosis in 2010, it has been quite a decade. Losing her will always be the hardest thing I and my family will endure but this pandemic, on top of that pain, is quite ruthless.
God bless you for what you are doing for business like mine. Whether Louie’s is selected for the fund or not, hearing other stories like mine helps. Laying out our history with Little Louie’s in this way is just another reminder that I am doing what I love and that with a bit of luck that history won’t end.